Long Bias Cutting

Cutting Long Bias Strips

Here is a simple way to cut bias strips from a large piece of fabric.

Here is a yard of fabric still folded as it comes off the bolt. The selvages are at the top of the photo, and the fold is at the bottom.

Open it up. Notice where I am holding the lower left corner. Think of this as the corner of an “L”.

Holding this corner, bring the bottom of the “L” so that it is lying on the side of the “L”.

Move the fold you just created so that it is along one of the horizontal lines on the mat.

You can see that the fabric is still awkward to cut because it won’t fit under the ruler. Carefully bring the top section down and be sure this new fold you are creating is along another horizontal line on the mat. Now it will fit under your ruler. You can repeat this step again as long as all folds remain parallel to each other.

Place your ruler so that it lines up with a vertical line on the mat. Begin cutting in the middle area of your fabric and work toward the sides. This will give you the longest strips.

Here you can see a 2 1/2″ strip cut on the bias.